Chapter Text
The moon shone bright in the sky, dimly lighting the roof top where a boy was perched looking out at the cityscape. A city that never sleeps at night. Lights still shone in windows and music still played loudly in the bars and clubs. But up atop the buildings it all felt more distant, peaceful even.
At least it would be peaceful if it weren't for the fact that he was supposed to break into a high security bank by himself. It wasn’t like this was his first time breaking into a building, in fact that’s how he got into this situation in the first place but this was his biggest assignment he had gotten since he started working for Cobra and he was very anxious about it.
Virgil didn’t really enjoy working for Cobra but it was keeping his family safe, plus he was getting paid so he probably shouldn’t complain. Even still, he wished he hadn’t gotten involved in the first place.
The watch on his wrist buzzed making him jump. He gave the city skyline one last look before he turned and scaled down the building dropping into a crouch at the bottom. The shadows wrapped around him, cloaking him in darkness as he moved through the dark alleyway.
He stopped in front of a towering skyscraper practically made of glass that reflected the streetlights. Thankfully there weren’t a whole lot of cars coming or going this way, it’s not like they would spot him anyway but it did make things a lot easier.
The bank was in view now. Tall white pillars standing out against the dark brown bricks and the large mahogany doors. He was really starting to rethink his life's decisions but it wasn’t like he could back down now. His wristwatch buzzed twice and he was moving before he could psych himself out.
He approached the building silently and walked up the grand stairs that led to the intimidatingly large doors. He tried pulling on the handle slightly but of course it was locked. He pulled a lockpick from his pocket and silently hoped it would be enough to get through the door without having to knock it down or bust it open.
There was a soft click and Virgil tried the door again, it slid open silently. He took a deep breath to try and calm his racing heart as he stepped into the large, dark building. No alarms were blaring so he assumed the security was down for the moment.
Two guards stood by the door. They turned when the door opened but with two quick strikes they were laying unconscious on the white marble floor. Moonlight filtered through large windows, giving the large room a ghostly look that only made his anxiety heighten.
He felt far too vulnerable in the wide open space, as if something would jump out from the shadows and attack him. His boots clicked loudly on the marble as he sped-walked to the large dark oak desk at the end of the room.
Behind the desk was a tall mahogany door with a golden design of a tree on it. Virgil vaulted over the desk and approached the door, cautiously twisting the golden knob. He was surprised to find that it wasn’t locked.
He pushed open the door and entered a pure white room with a metal staircase to his right and an elevator to his left with four guards standing to either side of them. Before they could speak, shadows quickly enveloped them, laying them gently on the floor when they went limp.
His boots clanked on the stairs as he descended down the stairwell which would be pitch black for any normal person but lucky for him he had night vision.
Several flights down he landed on a platform with a large number 3 painted on the wall. Virgil pushed on the door below the number and found himself in a long corridor with branching hallways and doors leading elsewhere but at the end of the hall was a large vault door. He hurried down the hall to the vault.
Now the next problem was actually getting into the vault. Cobra hadn’t exactly told him how to do that, he had just given him the location of the vault, a keycard, a code and a ‘good luck.’ before he took off to who knows where. The vault reminded him of one you would find in a movie with a whole bunch of gears and wheels that he doubted actually worked and were just there for decoration or to intimidate robbers.
He was, in fact, intimidated.
He took the keycard out of his pocket and squinted at it. It was hard to read in the dim light and his night vision only worked so well but he could make out the shape of a human head in the corner and he guessed it was some sort of ID he just had no idea what to do with it. The vault didn’t seem to have a scanner or anything.
Virgil felt around the vault for anything like a card reader and found nothing until he bumped a part of the wall and a little compartment opened up, almost blinding him with a sudden bright light.
He blinked a few times to let his eyes adjust before examining the compartment. Just as he suspected it seemed to be some sort of card reader with a number panel. He slid the ID card into the machine and winced as it beeped loudly.
‘Please enter code’ the machine said in a mechanical, feminine voice. Virgil typed in the code Cobra had given him and the machine beeped again. A soft hiss came from the vault door. He tugged on one of the wheels and the vault door budged just a bit but it was heavy, really heavy.
Virgil tugged and pulled with all the strength he could muster, which, in all honesty, wasn’t a lot but he managed to get it open enough to slip through.
Inside were stacks upon stacks of a shiny metal he didn’t recognize, it looked similar to silver but it had a translucent shimmer to it even in the pitch black.
He found himself almost transfixed by the strange metal before he shook himself out of it and tore his gaze from the silver (or whatever it was). He pulled his backpack off his shoulders and started stuffing the metal inside.
The metal was lighter than he expected. It was cool to the touch and thrummed with a strange energy. He brushed his thumb over the metal, faint colors swirling at the contact.
ER-OR ER-OR ER-OR
A sudden loud blaring made Virgil nearly jump out of his skin as everything was flooded with red as the lights started flashing.
Shit.
He hurriedly stuffed as much metal as he could reach into his backpack before slinging it over his shoulders, nearly toppling over by the sudden weight.
He bolted out of the vault and to the stairwell as fast as he could with the heavy backpack slowing him down. He heard heavy footsteps running down the stairs towards him and panic set in as he saw about 8 guards descending the stairs with flashlights.
He huddled in the corner of the platform and prayed that the guards wouldn’t spot him. The guards rushed past him into the door beside him, flashlights flicking over him but they didn’t seem to notice the mass of shadow. Once he was sure all of them were through he rushed up the stairs.
He cursed the backpack for being so heavy but he couldn’t stop now to adjust it. A stitch was forming in his side but he couldn’t stop now. Finally he reached the top, gasping for breath, and saw the four guards he had knocked unconscious surrounded by four more guards.
One of them seemed to notice him and opened his mouth to shout but Virgil sent him flying backwards into the other guards with a long tendril of shadow. He took the opportunity to burst out the mahogany door and out into the main bank.
Almost out, just a little further…
Virgil was suddenly blindsided by a burst of light that sent him flying into the wall; he bit back a shout of pain as the metal in his backpack dug into his back. His eyes burned from the sudden light. He covered his eyes with his forearm as he let them recover from the burst.
“Stop criminal!” A voice boomed.
Virgil’s vision cleared enough to see a figure glowing with a bright white light that seemed to be emanating from him. He couldn’t make out any details but he knew who it was. Prism, the great superhero sworn to protect the city. Great.
Prism slowly approached him and Virgil realized he no longer had his shadow to protect himself, the light burst must have blasted it away. He quickly summoned shadows to hide his face. Guards burst out of the door besides him and stopped short at the sight of Prism.
“Fear not, friends. I have apprehended the criminal!” Prism exclaimed. Virgil felt panic settle over him. He had no idea how he was going to escape this, he just had to go with instinct.
He shot to his feet and tried to make a run for it. Of course they would try to stop him. He heard feet pounding after him and waved a hand to send the guard flying away from him with a shadow tendril. The guards were of little concern, it was Prism who was the main problem.
Prism shot a beam of light towards him and Virgil brought up a wall of shadow to shield himself before concentrating that into another tendril that he sent whipping towards Prism and struck the hero across the chest.
Prism doubled over and dropped to the floor, the light surrounding him flickering before going out and Virgil took that opportunity to run past him.
He sensed it before he heard it, a loud boom echoing in the large room and the whistle right by his ear as a bullet sped past him. He was halfway to the door.
Another gunshot and a bullet thudding into the floor by his feet. Virgil spun on his heel and saw the guards who were firing at him and sent another wave of shadow at them, this time throwing them back into the wall where they slumbered
He was about to make his retreat when he saw Prism was still lying on the floor in a pool of dark liquid that Virgil quickly realized was blood. Blood? Had he really hit Prism that hard?
He needed to go before backups arrived. But could he really just leave Prism here? Surely the backups would take care of him. But that was a lot of blood. He needed to make sure the wound wasn’t fatal at the very least. Just for his own sake.
He ran over to Prism and flipped him onto his side to see a deep gash stretched across his chest that was slowly oozing blood. Virgil grimaced at the sight. Prism still seemed to be breathing thank goodness for that but he was losing a lot of blood.
He didn’t mean to hurt Prism this bad, maybe give him a small bruise or cut but nothing like this. He was afraid that if he left the hero here he might die from blood loss. There was no way he could carry another human, especially since he had to carry his backpack full of heavy metal as well and Prism did not look like an easy person to carry.
The hospital was too far away anyway and he didn’t want to be asked any questions. There was somewhere closer he could take Prism but that was just going to get him even more questions. But looking at the hero slowly bleeding out made him make a rash decision.
He put one arm around Prism and tried hoisting him up. Man, he was heavy. With the aid of his shadows Virgil managed to support him enough to start dragging Prism out of the bank.
***
Virgil nearly collapsed as he reached the outside of the condo. He had a massive stitch in his side and he was gasping for air. He dragged Prism up the last few steps and fumbled with the door which was thankfully unlocked.
He pushed the door open and staggered over to the couch where he collapsed onto it. Dropping Prism ungracefully beside him, covering the neat beige couch in red.
“Care to explain where you’ve- Oh my stars! What happened!?” A familiar voice exclaimed, almost making Virgil jump as a man in a cat onesie rushed over, wasting no time in rolling up his sleeves and putting his hands over the large gash across Prism’s chest.
“Virgil, are you hurt? What happened? Where were you?” Dad gushed as a soft light blue glow emanated from his hands, reflecting in his round glasses.
“No, I’m okay. I wasn’t hurt.” Virgil responded shakily, still trying to catch his breath.
“What happened?” Dad asked again.
Virgil watched the wound on Prism’s chest slowly, ever so slowly start closing up and felt guilt twist his gut.
“I would like to know that too.” Another, more calmer, voice said from the doorway that filled him with a sense of dread. Virgil glanced up to see a man with lexington glasses and a deep blue button up sleep shirt with matching leggings.
Virgil bit his lip. He hated lying, especially to his parents. “I, uh, I couldn’t sleep so I went for a walk. I went past the bank and found him” he gestured to Prism “I didn’t want to leave him there…”
“Kiddo, you know it’s not safe going out alone at night.” Dad said worriedly
“I know… I’m sorry…”
“At least you were not harmed. Do you know how this happened?” Pa asked as he moved to the couch chair.
“No… I just heard the alarms going off and then I saw him on the ground. I didn’t know what to do so I brought him here.”
“You should have called someone. Oh, but what if whoever did this was still there, they could have got you too, Kiddo.”
Virgil just looked down at his own hands and started fiddling with the strings on his hoodie while anxiety and guilt churned in his stomach. His heartbeat was still rapid though was slowing down now that he wasn’t in immediate danger.
“That’s all I can do right now. He will probably need to stay the night so I can finish healing him tomorrow.” Dad said, breaking the long silence that had fallen over the room.
“You should get some sleep, Kiddo. You’re exhausted. We can talk about this more in the morning, okay?” Virgil just nodded and stood up. Dad was right, he was exhausted, mentally and physically exhausted.
Dad placed a hand on his shoulder and Virgil could’ve sworn he saw him wince but he chose to ignore it. He walked to the stairs and paused. “G’night, Dad. G’night Pa.” he murmured before trudging up the stairs.